House of Dekton cards: industrial designer creates 14-sided house with ultra-compact surface material

Geraldine Chua

Industrial designer Steffen Kehrle has created a 14-sided house made entirely of Dekton, a durable ultra-compact surface material launched by The Cosentino Group last year.

Featuring a round shape that takes inspiration from the Pantheon and Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House, as well as early dwellings like the tepee and circus tents, the structure’s walls are made from large format Dekton slabs (1.44 x 3.20m), arranged next to each other as in a house of cards.

The entire house is in a ‘Danae’ colour finish, a cream shade reminiscent of travertine limestone. The only pops of colour can be found in a central 14-sided table with 15 different shades that mirror Dekton’s colour palette.

According to Kehrle, the home was built to showcase the material’s flexibility, aesthetics and durability.

“The material’s many outstanding qualities offer both architects and interior designers totally new options, and it is these options we want to showcase with the ‘House of Dekton’”, he said.

Visitors visiting the house can use the supplied Dekton kits, which contain screwdrivers, lighters and aggressive cleaning agents, to test the surface’s resilience. The material’s properties are also communicated via icons engraved in the wall and floor panels, removing the need for additional information boards.

Produced with Sinterized Particle Technology (TSP), a process which replicates the metamorphic changes natural stone undergoes when subjected to high pressure and temperatures over thousands of years, but accelerates the process to just a few hours, the Dekton surface is said to be able to recreate any type of material with a high level of quality.

This includes a variety of textures such as rippled, leather, denim, slate, brushed or coated.

Dekton has previously been used by architect and designer Daniel Libeskind for his 2014 sculpture, ‘Beyond the Wall’, and for the flooring of Baku airport, and Dani Garcia’s restaurant in Marbella.

Check out more interior surface products available in Australia that can stand more than a few knocks and scratches here.